Rating: 
Summary: An instant classic...marvelous tribute
Review: Despite what others have said about the book, it is a great read. Well worth the money for sure. The biographical style is noteworthy and deserves kudos for creativity. A great book for anyone who claims to be a Regan admirer and is interested in the legacy of his presidency.
Rating: 
Summary: A bum job on a bum job
Review: Everyone knows this book is a bomberoo, despite some defences of it in the highbrow media. True, it was a difficult task to do a biography of this vapid president, but after reading this fictitious (and bizarre) memoir I don't feel I know much more then when I began.
Rating:
Summary: If read free of assumptions, this is a commendable work.
Review: I, like many others have paid attention to the media hyperbole surrounding this autobiography. I took a great deal of effort to read the book with a truly open mind, one not clouded by a priori assumptions perpetuated by many who apparently have not read the autobiography with great scrutiny. While it does take time to develop a familiarity with Morris's novel and quite effective style of writing, the book provides outstanding insights in exacting detail about a man that remains for many of us a paradox - the Great Communicator and the most fiercely private of men. If one doubts the veracity of the work detailing Reagan's life, one merely has to examine the copious pages of notes directing readers to appropriate citations and third-party references. Through Morris's well-thought and detailed analyses of documented facts and through his personal insights, I truly feel that I know more about Ronald Reagan as a man rather than the politician. Indeed, Morris's work has certainly enhanced my understanding and admiration of this most enigmatic of men. Morris's style in writing this book should be commended as a most surprisingly effective tool by which to illustrate for the reader what are, at all levels, simply documented facts about the life of Ronald Reagan.
Rating: 
Summary: Where's the Rest of Him?
Review: Edmund Morris's biography about the president who least resembled an IBM Selectric II typewriter (he lacked both a memory and a colon) is a bit of fantasy all by itself.Reagan, who greatly damaged our country with his absurd deficits, his Hollywood-war "Star Wars," and his numerous scandals (who can forget everything from James Watt's rape of the environment to HUD?) now gets the cheesecloth treatment in this "elegie." Morris could do a "Madlibs" with this book, and create a glowing bio of North Korean Dictator Kim Il Sung. It might even make a better read.
Rating: 
Summary: A fascinating, unusual book
Review: Despite all the harsh criticism given this book, I found it a very illuminating portrait of Reagan. The fictional characters, though odd in a biography, didn't bother me. Beautifully written, hard to put down.
Rating:
Summary: Judge for Yourself, as the Author says
Review: It's too bad there's so much controversy swirling about this book, especially since many in the news media covering it are too vapid to comprehend it. Biography, and history, has transcended the recitation of mere facts. Yet there is the problem: history and biography are facts. There are enough facts about every human being, much less a man of Reagan's greatness, so that several separate biographies may be written about anyone, presenting that person, you or me, as totally different people, depending on the author's interpretation of the facts. Beyond the problem of underlying theme, there are two more problems, one of them real and the other largely imaginary. The imaginary one is that there has to be a "new" form of biography or history, because those writing today seem that the mere recitation of fact -- which would've been far better in this case -- simply isn't interesting. Another "new" biography I read recently was on the actor Peter Sellers, whom the author summed up as "evil". Perhaps he was, but it's hardly a biographer's place to make that sort of judgment. Casting himself in the book is a relativistic approach, rather like the scientists who believe performing an experiment in itself alters the results. This time, we have a recognized and honored biographer inserting himself fictionally into the narrative, and putting thoughts in people's heads that he cannot verify. I never met Ronald Reagan (I also didn't support him at the time although I've changed totally in hindsight to say he's one of our greatest presidents), but from other reports he was simply a man who was himself. This confuses many people. We expect people to put on different faces and play different parts in different surroundings. There's a certain accepted schizophrenia let loose in society, if I may use that term loosely, in its popular meaning. In a personal way, the best compliment ever paid to me was from a co-worker who told me, "You know, you're the same with everyone." For some reason, this can confuse people these days. I wish Mr. Morris, who's previous work is impeccable, had, if he couldn't make heads or tails of Reagan the man, simply fallen back on a boring recitation of facts. He'll probably sell more books with the controversy, but if I were to choose a biography of Reagan -- or anyone else -- for the facts of his life and career, I would be more likely to choose one that at least made a pretense of presenting the fact as they were discoverable, and leave the interpretation of them to me. However, to those out there who still hate and despise Ronald Reagan's guts simply on ideological grounds, it might be a good place to start toward a more tolerant understanding of this man who changed the world and led the US to unprecedented economic success.
Rating:
Summary: Shame on you, Mr. Morris...
Review: What a disservice Edmund Morris has done to historical biography. I have mixed feelings about Ronald Reagan and his presidency. So, I was not expecting a vainglorious tome to his greatness in reading this long-awaited (and, shall we all agree, long-overdue!) biography. But what a piece of trash--- I had to check the cover continuously to be sure it wasn't a Jackie Collins work. The insertion of himself and several other "fictional" Morris family members leads me to believe that the author suffered both from laziness and from a desire to propel himself to an historical figure, and not fulfill his responsibility to make Reagan the subject of his book. Much of the presidency of Reagan is overshadowed by Morris' unsuccessful attempts to get at the psyche of the man. While one can understand his desire to do so, he was unsuccessful. This book calls into question the credibility of Edmund Morris as a biographer. I plan to re-read The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt next week and do it with a whole new perspective: Is it a fine piece of biography, or a quiltwork of facts mixed with literary license gone awry. We can only hope that David McCullough might pick up the challenge and address the life of Reagan. Then we might get an enjoyable and scholarly work. Shame on you, Mr. Morris.
Rating:
Summary: Should be called Edmund Morris, I love to write about myself
Review: As a person who voted in my first election in 1980 for RonaldReagan, and as a person who had many a disagreement with his policiesduring the eight years he served, I anticipated reading a well written, in depth look at the man and his times. Unfortunately, Mr. Morris' book is not any of those things. Aside from the almost unreadable prose, the poorly orgainized material, and the lack of any sort of thoughtful analysis of what drove Reagan to be Reagan, the book is simply first and formost about Edmund Morris. Do you remember the SNL character Al Frankin? His famous line was "What does this mean for me, Al Frankin?" Well, Edmund Morris is the Al Frankin of Reagan biographers. Do Not Buy This Book. I am going to do my best to get my money back. I can only say as a student of history with a degree in the field, this book is plain awful. Shame on you Edmund Morris.
Rating:
Summary: It never ceases to amaze me: people just don't get Reagan.
Review: It never ceases to amaze me the way liberals and foreign writers and some other people, never seem to be able to understand Ronald Reagan. The reason liberals don't, is because from the start, they hated him so much that they never took the time to understand Reagan or his ideas. The reason that foreign individuals never understand Reagan is because he incapsuled, in one body, the entire American Dream and ethos: which, if you're not an American, you really can't understand. Mr.Morris is a foreign born writer. Therefore he of course doesn't understand Reagan and never will. Who can really understand the heart of a man anyway? Mr.Morris seems to have a bit of the megalomania bug by inserting himself into the book as a fictional character. A fictional character?! In a book that is supposed to be nonfiction.....? In any American University classroom, Mr.Morris' book would have earned him an "F" if the assignment was to write a nonfictional piece. Unfortuneately, the Reagan's made a very bad decision picking Mr.Morris to write this bio. Because, much like his fictional character, this is at best a work of fiction, and one last shot by the media to attack a great, but dying, man. Mr.Morris should be ashamed of himself, and so should anyone who actually buys this thing. I know I am...The greatest President of the Twentieth Century and the people he served, deserve better.
Rating:
Summary: Not such a great book...
Review: ...and the problem isn't the "fictionalized" character. The problem is that it doesn't paint Reagan in the proper light. As one of the most frightening, dim-witted, puppet presidents in United States history. With more staff and cabinet indictments than even the Clinton administration--it's important to remember that the damage Reagan did to the country won't go away by dry cleaning it. Check out the books "Firewall" by Lawrence Walsh and "The Last Mogul" by Dennis McDougal if you want to read the REAL story of the most decietful, bumbling president in our generation.
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